Stone Setting Workshop at New Approach School

In February I took a week off from my normal work and traveled to Tenessee to attend the Stone Setting Comprehensive workshop at New Approach School. I had heard great things about this school, the teacher Blaine Lewis and especially this class. I really needed a referesher for stone setting. I do it daily but always suspect there are things I could do easier, quicker and just better. I am fairly good, I would think, at bezel setting but always stuggle with prong settings, have good and bad days when trying flush setting, rarely do channel settings and never even tried Pave or bead setting. 

Even better about this whole gig was that I finally met some online friends from our Etsymetal team. I spend the week with Shirlee Grund and Sarah Hood. We had a blast. It was great knowing a few people in class already. But we also met a few other students, some locals and some who traveled to this class from various locations in the US.

All the practice rings finished during Comprehensive Stone Setting Class at New Approach School

The class is intense but somehow even beginners managed to keep up (more or less). I was glad I took this class and did not jump to the advanced setting class. Even if some stuff was what I do day in and out, I still learned a lot of new tricks to make it all better in the future. Some settings I did similar (maybe because I learned it from his bezel and flush setting video some years ago). Other setting tricks were really an eye opener (prong tightening via vector approach!!!! Duh, why did I not think about that one). I learned that I need to open my funnel holes way more than I did before and seats don't need to be that wide. Lot's of proper tool use, tips like which bur to used first, how to hold the flexshaft and get control over the bur, the proper height to cut the seat... It's all just packed with little eye openers and "secrete" tips.

practicing bead setting for the first time

Blaine's way of demonstrating the techniques is great and really understandable. Loved seeing everything he did in so much detail on the large screens via his super magnification. I took lot's of notes and refereed back to them ever since coming home and jumping right back into setting stones in my orders. Since returning and in the months afterwards I definitely saw an improvement in my settings and the time it took to get them finish.

Some photos I took during the week of the setting rings and the tools we used can be found on Flickr.

It was a intense week of learning. The class started at 8:30am and went till 6pm or 7pm most nights. Blaine stayed long some night since we just could not get enough of his wisdom and wanted to finish our tasks before going home.

Channel setting practice run with brass blank and CZs. With some amazing tips  it's actually not that much of a mystery anymore.

The practice pieces during the class were all done with his pre-made brass mountings setting cheap CZ's. It's a great way of learning without having to fear to damage expensive mountings or stones.

• Day 1 was flush setting and round stone prongs
• Day 2 was bead setting and drove us all crazy. I think that was the hardest for us all. Kind of strange he did that so early on in the week but I guess the purpose was to teach us working with gravers. That really made a huge difference after that day. I think we also did a channel setting in the afternoon.
• Day 3 we started grinding gravers and how to sharpen them, then jumped into an oval thick wall bezel setting. He showed us how to do milligrain on settings. And more custom tool making.
• Day 4 we did princess cut prong setting and then a semi-bezel setting with round stone
• Day 5 last day was really intense: short prong basket setting, Gypsy setting with a round Cabochon and then another type of channel setting with tilt in stones

I might get the days mixed up a bit, there was so much going on.

End of Day 2.

What this class certainly does not teach is fabricating settings. That's probably covered in other classes and for sure his 8 or 12 week programs. There is absolutely no designing and no fabrication going on in the Stone Setting Comprehensive class. He just hands out blanks and stones and you set the stones in the blanks. Simple as that :) What one will learn is setting various types of stones (mostly faceted) in any type of cast, die-stuck or commercial setting. Of course once you know the generic rules for stone settings it can be applied to about any other setting type too. And it will make fabricating settings a lot easier too when one knows already how the stone will be set in there.

I really loved that we made custom tools and learned graver sharpening. 

Gravers and custom stone setting tools

It was possible to purchase new GRS graver blanks during the workshop and learn to properly shape and sharpen them right there. I came home with a whole new set of stone setting tools. I love new tools!!!!! Those graver's and tools have been used every day ever since I got home. Makes such a difference!

The class is well worth the money. It certainly adds up quite a bit with tuition, lodging, car to travel around, food, flight from LA,... But I am really glad I finally did it. It will pay for itself in no time. I think I might be interested to go back to the advanced class in a year or two.

All these long demonstrations were great, packed with lot's of stories from his many years in the business. I really liked that he did a few little "screw ups" too during his demonstrations like braking some CZ's when channel setting. Not sure if those were intentional.  But he turned it around as a teaching point in how to fix these things. And that breaking stones happens to the best. Kind of made me feel a bit better

During our visit in Franklin, Tennessee we ate great southern food, heard some nice county music performances, did some sightseeing and met with Carrie Nunes who showed us around in Nashville. Beautiful city. I bet it's really nice there during non-winter times. It was a great winter getaway for me, a nice break from the oh so tough LA weather. In a way I loved the cold and rain for a couple days after spending my time in 80 degree Fahrenheit the week before in LA.  I came back with lot's of new knowledge to try and practice immediately since I got lot's of orders to finish.

Magnification Tools

Amazing how my eye wear in the studio changed over the years. I used to do everything with just some safety glasses on, no magnification needed. Stones were big, settings easy.
The more intricate my work got, the more I needed magnification. My eyes are actually still excellent and I don't need glasses or contacts for everyday normal tasks. But stone settings will turn out so much better with the right magnification.

I really started adding magnification to my tools after taking a stone setting class last February. Before that I mostly used just safety glasses for grinding and polishing work and my Optivisors with different magnification lenses for stone setting. But I got the feel that I needed more enlargement to really see whats going on with my setting. Nothing worst than having just finished ring, just to realize when taking photos that the setting is not perfect. Taking photos of ones handmade jewlery can be a real eye opener. It shows every little flaw the normal eye view can't even pick up.

I was hoping I would just get used to using a hand held loupe with 10x magnification for stone setting. That's what's taught during Blaine Lewis  Comprehensive Stone Setting class at New Approach School, a highly recommended class for anyone wanting to get better at stone setting.
But I really needed my hands free to do the actual stone setting. Using a loupe felt bothersome. Most of the magnification tools like glasses, bifocals and the likes only give a 2x to 3.5x magnification. Not bad, but not great either when dealing with stones less than 5mm dimensions, especially with fancy cuts.

Then I watched Blaine Lewis do his class tutorials with a microscope with super magnification  shown to his students on big monitors. All I wanted at this point was a microscope. So back from class I took the plunge and got a highly recommended Meiji one to test. After playing with it for a a couple days I was hooked. Such a game changer when at once you can see things at a 7x to 45x magnification.

Meiji Microscope at metal working bench. Yes, my bench is always messy.

All over sudden one can see the tiny movements the metal of heavy bezel walls makes when hitting it with a setting hammer. Flush setting small 1mm diamonds is a breeze with the right magnification. I even felt compelled to try pave settings just because I could actually see what I was doing. One can really see if a stone setting is really closed safely over the stone's girdle. This means fewer lost stones, less stone breakage during setting, quicker finished stone setting tasks. Plus more beautiful settings equals better photos and more sales in the end.

A microscope is a huge investment but I think it's money well spend. I had to also add an adjustable bracket for my bench mate to bring down the ring clamp. This keeps the right distance to the microscope and a comfortable sitting and ergonomic head position. Getting used to working with a microscope was pretty easy. I think it also improved my posture at the bench, greatly reducing any occasional back problems.

I recently added a second cheaper microscope at my wax bench. Haven't really tried it out much yet. It feels a bit more awkward to use at first, but it should get better once I figure out the right setup. I was using the one at the metal bench more and more when carving waxes and it seemed to make stone setting a lot quicker after casting. So having one at the wax bench should save more time as I don't have to move around so much. Also got an extra LED light for the Meiji from AM Scope since it was a lot cheaper than the one offered through Otto Frei or Rio . It's a lot nicer now with this adjustable ring light.

I still use my Optivisor with #5 (x2.5) and #10 (x3.5) lenses for some tasks like polishing and grinding. They work pretty good but I sometimes hate the head band thingy. Leaves me with a bad hair do after a full work day and a sweaty and dirty forehead especially in hot summer months. But they work apparently great for people who wear glasses to correct other eyesight issues and just need to add some magnification.

Wax working microscope, Optivisor, 2.5x readers, safety glasses for casting and welding.

A couple cheap +2.5 drugstore readers come in handy too for those tasks only needing some safety glasses  with minor magnification like general work with the Foredom flexshaft tools and soldering. I keep misplacing these readers, so fancy frame colors help finding them easier in my mess. I wish they would make some with glow in the dark frames for easy locating at the end of the work day.

I also have some Eschenbach glasses that I can't get used to working with. The field of vision is smaller than with the Optivisor. The 2X magnification isn't really worth it and the 16 inches working distance is too far away for me for jewelery work. Each lens has a dial that allows for adjustments and for a change in focal length, which is great but still not really useful for me. They do work great if reading a book or working on a laptop where the working distance is more constant. But I don't really need magnification for those things yet. Maybe I use them more in a couple years when my eyesight takes a plunge.

I still use some plain safety glasses at the polishing machine, dark glasses for casting and dark welding glasses for palladium soldering. All those don't have magnification.

Finding the right magnification tools can be tricky for some jewelers who have to deal with certain eye sight issues like astigmatism or nearsightedness. Testing out a lot of those really helps finding the one that feels comfortable.  

Digital Designs

Last week I introduced some new engagement ring designs in my wedding store on Etsy. This time I went a bit different route than I usually take. Instead of carving all these designs in wax, then casting them, finish and set expensive stones, I went digital. I did model them in CAD and rendered photo realistic images of them in different metal options. I finally started using my new learned 3D CAD skills that I spend endless hours last year learning and practicing it during the RAW challenge. Hopefully all that hard work will ultimately pay off. All are modeled in Rhino4 with T-splines plugin and rendered in Brazil for Rhino.

Here a few of those new ring designs. All use Moissanites as they are perfect durable gem stones for engagement rings and rings are available in different metal options. Other gem stones could be used with these designs too.

Moissanite Full Bezel Engagement ring with optional wedding band. Available in Silver/Palladium, 14K yellow gold, white gold and Palladium upon request.

Round 5mm Moissanite in half-bezel setting

Close up of the Moissanite in it's setting

Same design but in 14 karat yellow gold

All those designs are variations for similar setting types I have done before, like my Fold ring collection. I pretty well understand how I will have to make them once an order comes in, how they will look and know that proportions will work. The thing that really got me moving in this direction was calculating my expenses for my 2011 taxes. Seeing the amount of money I spend on developing new designs in the last year, spending thousands on buying stones and precious metals, made me rethink my strategy for this year. All that money spend is money I don't have to pay my mortgage or feed myself. To keep doing what I love to do, I need to start running my business smarter.

Half carat cushion cut Moissanite in a half-bezel setting in yellow gold

Rings I produced in metal to be able to photograph them and list them in my shop, often stay a long time with me. It can take weeks, month or years to actually be able to sell the one I have in stock. I learned that with engagement rings people almost always request some slight modifications. Those can be a different metal, wider or narrower bands, different finish, different size, type or color of a gem stone, etc. Plus everyone needs a different ring size. Once a stone is set in a ring, it is pretty tricky to resize it. It works with some stones and usually within a small size range. But more often than not it is better to redo the ring to the correct size and dimensions. I did already move towards taking photos with the rings 90% finished but the stones just laid in the settings without tightening the rim over the stone. This allowed me to remove it and size it better without risking to damage a stone during the soldering. Still, sometimes the settings look slightly different with the stone not fully set. Once the metal is moved over the rim of a stone, the setting usually looks a bit smoother, all is tight and nicely finished. Even with that approach I could not resize more than 2 sizes up or down without affecting the overall shape and integrity of the ring.

Cushion Moissanite in Palladium or also available in Silver/Palladium.

 

Last month I finally had a break through with 3d modelling and actually really enjoy working with it. It's a great tool to try out a few variations of a design and make decisions quickly without investing too much money. It still takes considerable amount of time to model my designs in 3D. Photo realistic rendering also is a time sucker. It's easy to spend hours and hours on the computer trying to get the lights and reflections on the metal just right. It really requires me to remember what I learned in high school and college about physics, optics & mathematics. It's all very geeky, which I actually love. It can be frustrating at times but great when things finally work. I guess with time it will get faster as I will figure out some standard settings to use. Plus the images will only get better with more knowledge of the software.  I love that I can show the same design in white metals and yellow gold options relatively quickly and without the expense of buying gold at all time high prices.

I am already working on some custom orders for these new designs, all are modified from the original by using larger stones and applying different finishes on the metal. When an order comes in I mostly still carve the rings by hand in wax. I actually photographed some stages of carving a model in wax and will post them to the blog in the next days. This will show how to bring those digital designs to life and on the hands of a lucky bride. The current design I am hand modelling is this setting with a 5.5 mm cushion Moissanite, made in Silver/Palladium alloy with matching wedding band. Both rings will get a hammered texture.

Cushion Cut Moissanite in Full bezel setting.

There will be a few more designs in the future that will need to be 3D printed or milled by a CNC machine as they are a bit more complicated and would be harder to carve by hand. It's not impossible to hard carve them but sometimes it's just more efficient to choose a different tool.  Since I don't own a mill or 3D printer, I need to send those out to a service bureau. It takes a bit longer to get those models back and fewer modifications will be possible. I am still continuing to produce new designs directly in wax and metal without going digital. Especially for one-of-a-kind gem stones and unique one off designs it is still the most effective way. Using CAD is currently better for designs that can be replicated again especially with stones that are commercially available in constant sizes and colors. Moissanites are perfect for that and I love working with them.

So far the response has be great and I got already a few communications going with potential customers for their engagement rings. I am really looking forward to seeing them all come to life.

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New Tool Love

I am in love... with a new tool. Don't know why I waited so long to get it.
Now that it's here with me, I can't imagine how I lived without it.
All this excitement is about this baby:

A GRS Bench Mate system with stone setter kit. 

The GRS Bench Mate basically a vice. I know, kind of strange to get so worked up over just a vice. But it makes my life so much easier. Rings stay put while setting stone. No more cramps in the hands when trying to grip tightly to a piece.  And there are so many accessories available. It can be converted into a bench pin, a soldering station or even a belt sander with some extra equipment. I did not get the belt sander or soldering accessories as I like to have my separate soldering station on the side of the bench. But the inside ring holder is great.

All the pieces just out of the box

A mounting plate gets screwed on the face of the bench and then the pieces just slide into the bracket. It's super fast to exchange the vice parts for the bench pin. (Sorry, it is kind of messy under my bench as usual.)

There is a inside ring holder as shown and a second vice type holder for clamping pieces.  The holders move easily in every direction or can be locked in any position.

I find the arm rest on the right a bit uncomfortable. Would be nice if it would be slightly padded to give more comfort for my wrist. But I guess could easily put a small leather or neoprene piece on it to provide just that. 

It was so much fun stone setting with this new vice that I set most of the rings that were piling up for weeks. 

Fancy Rubellite Tourmaline Tetra Ring

I finally finished this Tourmaline ring with an awesome Rubellite fancy cut gem. The ring was modeled in wax and then cast in sterling silver.

I was actually dreading to do the stone setting for a while since I knew I had to try a new setting technique for that. I had to make a special pin burnisher from a old steel scribe. One can also use a old worn-out bur to make this miniature burnisher and then just mount it on a dowel or other handle. I followed the instructions in John Cogswell's book "Creative Stonesetting". The steel tool first needs to be annealed at the tip with a torch flame. When cooled it will be filed and polished to get a rounded tip. I started to set the stone by slightly tapping the heavy silver bezel with my hammer handset to lower the metal over the sides of the stone and basically tack it in place.

Then I started to rub down the edge of the metal rim by holding the burnisher in a 45 degree angle. This pushes the metal in a slight bevel over the rim of the stone. The pressure of the burnisher focuses on the metal rim. Since the steel was annealed it is softer than the tourmaline and therefore does not scratch the gem in the burnishing process. As the metal continues to move over the stone I raised the angle of the burnisher. At the end it leaves a beautiful uniform, reflective, inward-sloping rim. Then just the corners need some touch-up with gravers. I think overall this technique is actually faster and easier  then my typically hammer handset technique and it leaves this beautiful bright rim around a stone. I will try it out on a few different shapes in the future.

This ring is an incredible way to wear strong color. The pinks in this fancy cut Rubellite tourmaline cabochon is truly stunning. The dynamic angled setting displays the beauty of this rare cut stone with gorgeous natural inclusions.

The rubellite is a member of the family of tourmalines, and where its color shines in beautiful nuances is the range from red to shocking pink. I am drawn to a number of precious and semi-precious colored stones, mostly for their unique and beautiful natural color and/or inclusions. Inclusions should not be seen as flaws, but as proof of nature’s hand in creating an element of beauty.

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